I couldn’t agree more and would like to stress the importance of application service automation.

Modern data centers are very different from traditional data centers. The main challenge of modern data centers is not primarily the number of servers, it is the complexity of the multi-tier applications that run on those servers.

Deployment, changes and configurations, troubleshooting, recovery, expansion and other repeated processes on complex applications with multiple tiers, large numbers of servers, and specific dependencies between application components is challenging. Add to that the complexity of running applications on virtual or cloud environments.

Let me repeat: Modern data center applications are complex. Relying on error-prone manual and scripted processes to service and maintain data center applications often results in costly application downtime caused by human errors.

This is where new automation and management tools, such as Nolio’s, become useful.

In the high-stakes world of application availability, this is something your business cannot afford. Data center application service automation is the answer.

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Nolio Application Service Automation is a software platform for designing and executing automated application service workflows across the data center, enabling reliable, effective processes for the management of application change.

Their situation was that in case of a communication problem or an application problem in their main Data Center, they needed to switch to their Disaster Recovery site so that the customers will keep working while they fix the problem in the main Data Center.

Without automation, they had about 50 minutes downtime to sync their Disaster Recovery site, make the application functioning as well as the main Data Center, and make the transfer transparent to their customers.

They made the decision to automate all their Disaster Recovery processes using Nolio, and as a result, they are now able to switch to the Disaster Recovery site in just 3 minutes.

They did a real-time test a few days before our discussion, and successfully presented two of the Nolio Disaster Recovery automation processes to their management team, switching their main application to the Disaster Recovery site and back to their main site. The results were remarkable. Even though the test was done during peak time, their customers did not feel the transition between the two Data Centers.

The customer’s main application resides on several dozens of servers in each data center they operate, and now the transfer of any Data Center to the Disaster Recovery data center is done in just 3 minutes. The best part: even their Help Desk people, which have very limited knowledge of their operation procedures, can shoot this automation process by themselves, in case of a major customer issue, after getting the approval to run this process.

During our discussion, the customers’ VP of Data Center Operations told us, “There is no way to perform such a transition between main Data Center and Disaster Recovery Data Center manually within a few minutes even when done by the most professional ops guys. What if this happens in the middle of the night and we need to recover from a major issue? In that case it takes us few hours until all the relevant ops guys are syncing together to fix the problem. It is one of the most critical risks for the business that is now handled very well with Nolio.”

They are now in a process to automate all their maintenance routine tasks and problem resolution tasks. All their deployment procedures and configuration changes, and most of their recovery procedure are already automated. Next they are planning to push the automation to their R&D and QA environments.

Post written by Alon Eizenman, CTO, Nolio.

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Nolio Application Service Automation is a software platform for designing and executing automated application service workflows across the data center, enabling reliable, effective processes for the management of application change.